Ajisai Sushi Bar

2081 W 42nd Avenue, Vancouver, BC
604-266-1428‎

(pictures from May 2, 2008; dined here a lot of other times)
Two reviewers: ts and js

[js]
After working in a Japanese restaurant around twelve years ago and suffering through a particular bad run of Japanese restaurants a couple of years after that, meals that range from mediocre to downright yucky, we have dramatically cut down on our Japanese restaurant visits for the past ten years.

For those who remember Vancouver restaurant history, that bad run happened just before the mass proliferation of small sushi bars and all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurants around town. Market for sushi was growing, and a lot of would-be entrepreneurs cum sushi chefs flooded in to supply the increasing demand. Unfortunately, the quality of the supply was not always up to snuff.

It's still not always, so we have learned to be carefully picky when dining out at Japanese restaurants.

Ajisai is one of our Japanese restaurant standbys. It has the added pleasure of being so conveniently near our house. It is a small place, approximately seating only 40 people, and from what I know, they do not take reservations. There is almost always a lineup at the door and the wait can sometimes be very long. We've never waited for more than 30 minutes, though, as that is our cut-off. In general, sushi won't rate more time than that among our family members.



[js]
One drawback of Ajisai is they do not serve hot food, from the kitchen. They are strictly a sushi bar, and the only way they can get away with putting out "dynamite rolls" is having corn flakes (or some sort of crunchy flake-like things) stand in for the tempura coating on shrimp.

Still, the sushi is very good and the quality of fish is up to standards. One of our favourite dishes is this saba dish. Quite delicious.



[ts]
I almost always order the Spicy Tuna Don. I'm not too big on sashimi, as I prefer my raw meats prepared in some way. (Beef Tartare? Carpaccio? Ceviche? Bring it on!)

This is perfect for me as the tuna is flavored. Besides the "spicy" on the tuna, the rice also has a sauce drizzled on it. Very nice. I love sushi rice and theirs is great. I love nori as well, and they do have some nori strips hidden under the fish there.



[ts]
Below is a sampling of some of their menu items: an order of sushi (top) and their lunch special consisting of sushi, sashimi and a salad (bottom).




[ts]
Perhaps another drawback is that the servers don't seem to be as efficient as, say, servers in a Chinese restaurant. A remedy to this would be to go only if you're not in a hurry. Then everything would be fine. Of course, this is more "expensive" than your "sort-of-Japanese" restaurants, but you get what you pay for in authenticity and quality.

Applause Restaurant (April 13, 2008)

http://www.applauserestaurant.ca/

Two reviewers: ts and js

[ts]
Again with the difficulty finding a place to eat lunch!

Granted, this time around it was already a bit late (2pm). Anyway, after wandering around for a bit, we drove by Applause on Oak (the space formerly Japone) and saw they were open.

I didn't have the camera on me, so I guess their website will have to do, picture-wise.

Lunch Special: served with miso soup, house salad and Yasai croquette
B.C. sushi combo $7.95
Salmon, tuna, hokkigai sushi & B.C. roll

[ts]
I had this. It was actually very pretty in that bento box way. I don't think their site has a picture of their lunch specials in their entirety. I don't really eat sushi or sashimi, in general. I like my raw foods "prepared" in some way (eg, beef tartar, carpaccio). As for dipping sushi/sashimi into soy sauce? The whole thing just tastes like soy sauce! Anyway, let's not get into that. I do like sushi rice and nori. When I do eat sushi, I never eat it with soy sauce.

The sushi I had was not bad at all. I don't like those "fast food" type sushi seemingly on every block, but this wasn't like that. The salmon and tuna were their usual selves, no complaints. I liked the hokkigai; clam-my. ;D The BC roll was very nice. The salmon skin was actually very crispy, like it's supposed to be! Imagine that. The sushi rice was above average; it was more room temperature than slightly warm, but it wasn't ice cold. I also liked the soup and croquette, and even the salad, even though it was an iceberg one! So I guess I liked everything placed in front of me.

[js]
I have to agree about the sushi. The rice, I thought, looked better than "regular" fast food sushi joints. I'm very wary of those fast food sushi joints -- because, well, they are handling raw fish.

My take on the soy sauce thing: if it's bad sushi, yes, slather on the wasabi and dip the darn thing in soy sauce, to distract from the fact that you are eating BAD SUSHI. Kind of like my take on fries and ketchup.

If the sushi's good, there is very little need for soy sauce and wasabi. The fish and the rice is more than enough.

Shoyu Ramen $6.95

[js]
I'm a big fan of ramen. There's something about the springy noodles that I love. I love instant noodles for their springy noodles. (I hate soggy noodles!)

Ramen, like pasta and pizza, is another one of these food items that is simple and difficult to do at the same time. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I've eaten passable, pretty good ramen, but by my count, I've only eaten one bowl of great ramen.

That great bowl was years and years ago when a ramen joint opened near our house. That ramen house have since changed hands twice or three times. It's gone, gone, gone, like the warm toffee cake. I had the shoyu ramen there and it was a revelatory experience. "Simple yet profound," as the oft-repeated phrase goes. The shoyu broth sang and the noodles danced. It was a great bowl of ramen.

The shoyu ramen at Applause was passable-good. I loved the noodles (they were ramen noodles) but the broth seemed a little bland.

Oh, a couple of days ago, we went by Ajisen in Richmond. I ordered the spicy pork ramen. I was quite disappointed with the ramen there: the noodles were more like spaghetti than ramen noodles. Don't know if it's a bad day for them and I don't know if I'll venture there again.

(Some info on & a review of Ajisen here. It's an international chain, apparently.)

[ts]
I don't really like ramen. I haven't met a bowl of ramen I liked. Yeah, just, please, no ramen for me.

Saba Shioyaki (mackerel) $6.95

[ts]
I love mackerel. This was good. One really has to try to screw up the great taste of grilled mackerel!

[js]
I'm a purist so I thought this grilled mackerel was TOO PEPPERY! It had black pepper! All the previous saba shioyakis I've ever had just had a sprinkling of salt. I thought the pepper distracted me from the fish.

[ts]
Well, we did grow up during Letty's black pepper regime. So, black pepper is just neutral to me. In fact, I love black pepper!

[js]
Overall, I thought the restaurant was better than most Japanese restaurants we've been to, but my Japanese restaurant card is already full. We usually go to Ajisai on West Boulevard and 42nd because they have the best sushi in our 5 km radius.

[ts]
I wouldn't mind going here again; much better than other places (especially those really inexpensive "Chinese" Japanese restaurants). Although, yeah, Ajisai is one of the few Japanese restaurants I go to, when I actually agree to go to a Japanese restaurant. =) I think I prefer izakaya fare.

(There is a new Starbucks under construction beside Applause. DIABOLICAL!!!)